Paul Hillmann

Paul Hillmann (born January 5, 1867 in Rastorf , Mecklenburg ; † August 13, 1937 in Schwerin ) was a German agricultural scientist . From 1910 to 1920 he taught at the Agricultural University in Berlin . His main areas of interest were agricultural crop production and seed breeding .

Live and act

Paul Hillmann, son of a manor owner, received elementary education through private lessons in his parents' house. From 1876 to 1887 he attended a grammar school in Lübeck . He then completed an apprenticeship on his father's estate and on neighboring farms. In 1891 he began studying at the Agricultural University in Berlin and continued at the University of Leipzig in 1892 . In spring 1893 he took part in an agricultural study trip through North America led by the crop scientist Ferdinand Wohltmann . In 1895 he received his doctorate from the University of Leipzig with a dissertation on the evaluation criteria of milk for cheese making purposes .

During the following years Hillmann worked for the Chamber of Agriculture of the Brandenburg Province and in the Oldenburg State Ministry . In 1900 he passed the state examination for agricultural teachers. In 1901 he became an employee of the German Agricultural Society (DLG) in Berlin. From 1903 to 1917 he was managing director of the seed breeding department and from 1909 to 1917 he was also managing director of the colonial department . On behalf of the DLG, in 1910 he published the extensive book " The German Agricultural Plant Breeding ", which is still a standard work on the history of private plant breeding companies in Germany today.

In 1910 Hillmann completed his habilitation at the Agricultural University in Berlin with a paper on the determination of varietal purity and varietal authenticity in the assessment of seed fields. He received the Venia legendi for plant cultivation and colonial agriculture . As a private lecturer, he held lectures on tropical plant cultivation and seeds at this university. During the First World War he also took over Kurt von Rümkers' plant cultivation courses for several semesters . From 1916 to 1920 he was managing director of the " Society for the Promotion of German Plant Breeding ".

Hillmann, who was awarded the title of professor in 1918 , published most of his articles on crop production and seed breeding in the "Mitteilungen der Deutschen Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft". Of several publications on the academic training of farmers, his contribution " The scientific study of agriculture " , published in "Fühlings Landwirtschaftlicher Zeitung" in 1920, should be highlighted .

From 1920 to 1927 Hillmann worked as a seed breeding manager at Richard Schröder in Lischow (Krs. Wismar ). Here he cultivated various oil fruits, rye and grass species. His successful cultivars include the "Lischower Wiesenschwingel " and the "Lischower timothy grass ".

Publications (selection)

• Travel report (about a student excursion through North America in 1893). In: Agricultural Travel Studies on Chicago and North America. Edited by F. Wohltmann. Schletter'sche Buchhandlung Breslau 1894, pp. 165–214.
• Contributions to the knowledge of the influence of rennet on the protein substances in milk and to the evaluation of milk for cheese making purposes . Diss. Phil. Univ. Leipzig 1895.
• How should we choose varieties to grow our crops? Lecture given at the Economic Society in the Kingdom of Saxony, Dresden, on November 9, 1906. Verlag C. Schmidt & Co. Leipzig 1906.
• German agricultural plant breeding . On behalf of the board of the German Agricultural Society, published by Dr. P. Hillmann-Berlin = Work of the German Agricultural Society Issue 168, 1910. - Edition in French, ibid. 1911.
• The determination of the purity and authenticity of the variety when assessing seed fields with the aid of variation statistical studies . Habil.-Schr. Agricultural Hochsch. Berlin 1911.
• Agricultural geography as a subject of higher education . Habilitation speech. In: Fühlings Landwirtschaftliche Zeitung vol. 60, 1911, pp. 289–297.
• The scientific study of agriculture . In: Fühlings Landwirtschaftliche Zeitung vol. 69, 1920, pp. 121–130.

literature

• HD Hillmann: Paul Carl Thomas Hillmann, lecturer and seed breeder . In: Biographical Lexicon for the History of Plant Breeding, 2nd part. Edited by Gerhard Röbbelen, Verlag Liddy Halm, Göttingen = Lectures for Plant Breeding Issue 55, 2002, pp. 131–132 (with picture).